American Jon Jones (right) lands a kick on Sweden's Alexander Gustafsson during their World Light Heavyweight Championship bout during UFC 165 in Toronto on Saturday September 21, 2013.Chris Young
/ Canadian Press

FILE - In this March 16, 2013 file photo, Georges St-Pierre, left, from Canada, lands a blow to Nick Diaz, from the United States, during their UFC 158 welterweight mixed martial arts title fight in Montreal. The UFC is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend by putting its most decorated champion into what's likely his toughest matchup in years. Welterweight kingpin St. Pierre realizes he could struggle against streaking contender Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes, File)

But what about some of the lost or rarely-told stories since opening night in Denver on Nov. 12, 1993? Let’s revisit a few …

***

'MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?'

Campbell McLaren roars in laughter as he answers a tongue-in-cheek query about the earliest days of Ultimate Fighting Championship: what the hell is draka?

“At the beginning stage, we were looking for things that sounded really dangerous. ‘There are no rules.’ We had this chain-link octagon. And draka to me – I had no idea what draka was – draka sounded dangerous and foreign and something you would want to watch,” said McLaren, who along with Rorion Gracie, Art Davie, David Isaacs and Bob Meyrowitz brought UFC to fruition.

Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) was trying to promote this wild idea in which fighters from a variety of combat forms would meet on one night, winner-take-all. One of its first ads in Black Belt magazine – huge print overlaid on two anonymous grapplers – touted the various styles that would potentially be competing in this discipline-versus-discipline event. Sumo, everybody knows. Kickboxing was all over ESPN. Karate and tae kwon do were mentioned. And, mysteriously, the Russian combat style of draka.

SEG was selling the sizzle. It was all they had. Nothing like this had been tried before.

“I think Art found draka and sent me a brochure … The name was ominous. Like Drago (from Rocky IV), sounded Russian, dangerous. ‘My God. What is that?’ ” said McLaren.

That first night would long be remembered for the triumph of Royce Gracie, who introduced his family’s jiu jitsu to the masses in North America, needing less than four minutes to beat three opponents and move martial arts into a new era. But that night started in a most inglorious fashion, courtesy commentator Bill Wallace.

“Welcome to the Ultimate Fighting Challenge,” he told the pay-per-view audience. Mistake No. 1. He meant Championship, of course.

This would be shocking admission by most people. It’s just another casual tale in a seemingly endless line of wild anecdotes from and about David Abbott – introduced to fans at UFC 6 as ‘Tank’ Abbott.

“It was just a ha-ha thing,” said Abbott, the 270-pound California native who, with his goatee, shaved head and pit-fighter persona, fit the bill of what many at the time believed was a true tough guy.

“Tank has a particular style, a sense of humour,” said McLaren.

SEG executive David Isaacs remembers the day that envelope arrived, addressed to company accountant Steven Loeb. Abbott was one of the few fighters kept on salary by SEG – and his latest paycheque was late arriving.

Pay him on time, you wouldn’t have a problem with Abbott, said Isaacs. But Abbott also displayed a temperamental side, tying him and his entourage to the threatening of female SEG staffer Elaine McCarthy, an elevator beatdown of fellow fighter Patrick Smith, a brawl in a Japanese nightclub and more.

“I don’t think he wrote it on the bullet himself. I think it was just a bullet in the envelope,” said Isaacs.

Fair to say, the not-so-subtle reminder worked.

“They wired it the next day,” said Abbott.

***

THE CLOCK ALMOST STRUCK MIDNIGHT

As UFC executive David Isaacs frantically tossed luggage from the cargo hold of the waiting jet onto the frigid tarmac of Niagara Falls’ airport, the clock was about to strike midnight – literally – on UFC.

The hundreds of hours in court, the protests at events from Puerto Rico to Detroit and points in between, the verbal battles waged on Larry King Live and Good Morning America, the headlines in the New York Times proclaiming “Outcast Gladiators Find a Home: New York” – they all led to Feb. 6, 1997.

After state politicians reversed an earlier vote and banned no-holds-barred fighting (as it was known then), the promotion had been kicked out of New York barely 24 hours before UFC 12 was supposed to entertain a sold-out arena in Buffalo. The crew was madly scrambling to make it 1,095 miles away to Dothan, Alabama.

“We had leased these jets. We’d only had one at the time. We had another one coming but it wasn’t there yet. And we were overweight,” said Isaacs.

The fighters, members of their entourages, the octagon, production equipment and more were jammed into the plane and the airport was closing at 12 a.m. They had 10 minutes.

“It’s one of these smaller airports. And they won’t let us leave because the plane’s overweight. So Al Connell and I stood on the tarmac and threw stuff out, randomly, out of the cargo hole. And we left it on the tarmac,” said Isaacs.

With only a minute or two to spare, the jet took off.

“By the way, it was all of the fighters’ gear. That’s what we mostly left. We just threw their suitcases and bags on the tarmac and left,” said Isaacs. (He didn’t tell them, either. All the equipment arrived in time with the second jet.) Recalled Dan Severn, one of the UFC’s biggest stars of the era: “Basically I just laid in the aisleway and took a nap. I’m all too familiar with the phrase hurry up and wait.”

The crew arrived in Dothan as the sun was coming up. After giving away free tickets (the company lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in live-gate revenue) and finishing the octagon as the doors opened, the event was one of the best staged by the original owners.

McLaren compared that day and night to the Battle of Dunkirk. Isaacs felt “that was our D-Day.” With all the pressure – both monetarily and from outside forces – on UFC at the time, Isaacs believed that cancelling one show “might be the end of the business … From my perspective, it was my proudest moment.”

***

JUST BLEED GUY

On screen for barely five seconds, James Ladner has lived on in underground fight lore for 15 years.

Not by his real name, though. Ladner is known by fight fans as Just Bleed Guy.

He was captured on-screen during the introduction of the Mark Kerr-Greg Stott match at UFC 15 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Ladner was shirtless, green UFC painted on his forehead and – in big white letters – JUST BLEED scrawled in paint on his chest. Beer in hand, he flexed, grunted and groaned as the camera zoomed in (with someone one row behind smoking what appears to be a marijuana joint).

Joe Silva watched UFC 1 as a fan before getting hired as consultant before UFC 2 and later being named vice-president of talent relations with the Zuffa ownership. He said Just Bleed Guy was a perfect snapshot of those early days.

“The original UFC guys got a lot of criticism because of the way the sport was sold. ‘You can win by death’ or whatever. Certainly that caused a lot of problems later,” said Silva.

“But I do agree that at the time if they had just tried to sell it as what it is today, probably nobody would have cared … The Just Bleed Guy, he kind of captured the spirit of that moment. Yeah, that’s what people wanted to see. Now it’s definitely a real sport and it’s become much more refined and better athletes. But at the time, it was just this crazy thing and you just had to check it out for yourself.”

***

UFC'S FIRST GREATEST FIGHT EVER

UFC was about to enter its dark years. Banished from virtually all major cable distributors, its reach on pay-per-view was cut by 80 to 90 per cent. Its events were relegated to dingy buildings, small-town casinos and tent shows in southern U.S. states. Most fighters were paid a few hundred dollars per event. Home video distribution also stopped.

Lost in all of this was UFC’s first greatest-fight-ever: Frank Shamrock versus Tito Ortiz at UFC 22.

Shamrock, along with friend and training partner Maurice Smith, were transforming the sport.

When Shamrock (in his final UFC bout) and Ortiz hooked up, it was years ahead of its time: two well-rounded fighters giving a glimpse of what the sport would eventually look like.

Shamrock weighed in at 198 pounds – with a thick book stuffed in his pocket. Ortiz was 199.9 pounds but entered the cage 20 to 25 pounds heavier. Ortiz dominated much of the first three rounds, bloodying Shamrock on the mat.

“At the time you were allowed to open the cut worse than it was. I hooked my thumb in the cut in his head and I tried to open it bigger. He screamed and he said, ‘That was cheap, Tito,’ ” said Ortiz.

But after that third round, Ortiz was visibly gasping for air while Shamrock looked like he could keep going all night. The bout quickly turned in Shamrock’s favour, and he choked out an exhausted Ortiz with 15 seconds left in the fourth round.

Shamrock – thanks mostly to the disdain he and UFC boss Dana White share for each other – has been largely omitted from UFC’s official history books. But his undefeated record, and the Ortiz win in particular, don’t lie.

“He’s one of the greatest of all-time,” said Ortiz.

Said Lorenzo Fertitta: “Anybody who watched that fight I think saw the transformation of the sport being from athletes that maybe had one discipline and were very one-dimensional to full-fledged mixed martial artists.”

It’s one of the most famous knockouts in UFC history – and no one has ever seen it.

As Kevin Randleman warmed up for his heavyweight title defence against Pedro Rizzo at UFC 24, he slipped on a pipe and cracked his head on the floor. He threw up on his way to a local hospital and doctors believed he suffered a concussion, so they refused to let him fight. Though the incident happened early in the evening, fans in the arena weren’t told until just minutes before the scheduled bout, when the well-dressed ring announcer trekked nervously back into the octagon.

“It was kind of like a wanna-get-away moment,” said Bruce Buffer.

“I’ve got to go out and tell all these people who are just crying for blood and action? All I thought about was, ‘There’s going to be bottles and cans flying into the octagon. We’re all on one big bus. Are we even going to make it out of here?’ ”

***

TWO RELATIONSHIPS CEMENTED AT WEDDING

Dana White really didn’t want to go Adam Corrigan’s wedding. White’s future wife had other plans that night and the last thing he wanted to do was sit around a table as the sad-sack single with a bunch of people he didn’t know.

“Then I’m like, ‘This guy used to drive me to school every day. How am I not going to go to his wedding?’” White said.

That night wasn’t long after White had moved back to Vegas from Boston. As White lined up for the buffet, he saw the familiar face of another high school classmate: Lorenzo Fertitta.

Two relationships – the wedding couple, plus White and Fertitta – were cemented that day.

“We’ve been together since,” said White.

Had White decided to skip Corrigan’s wedding, maybe he wouldn’t have been in the position years later to call up casino owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta to tell them what he learned in his capacity as manager of champion Tito Ortiz: UFC was for sale. In January 2001, the Fertitta brothers – under the newly-created company Zuffa (it means ‘scrap’ in Italian) – bought the promotion for $2 million. White was named president.

“There are nights that Lorenzo and I will sit around drinking and just go, ‘Holy (expletive),’” said White. “We talk about all the little things that happened and what went on. It’s crazy.”

***

AN UNFORGETTABLE DEBUT - FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

As fight night started, everything felt right. It was a drastic change from the month prior to UFC 33.

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong leading up to UFC’s first event in the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas. Coming three weeks after 9/11, would fans feel safe flying again? If they did, what would they watch? Vitor Belfort, scheduled to face Ortiz in the main event, sliced tendons in his arm after crashing through a window and pulled out.

But as the date drew closer, all was well. Tickets sold quickly. Vladimir Matyushenko replaced Belfort. And Vegas returned to normal. On fight night, the atmosphere was amazing. The undercard was entertaining.

“The minute we went on TV, it became an absolute disaster,” said Fertitta.

Every single PPV bout went to the judges. This new ownership group had no broadcast experience and tried to pack too much in. Time was rapidly ticking away on UFC’s three-hour window. During the co-main event, Fertitta looked over at White. “We’re in trouble … We get a call from the truck. Everybody’s freaking out.”

Ortiz and Matyushenko went to the judges, as well, but few TV viewers saw the finish. When the third round ended, time was up on the broadcast. Television screens went black.

White said it was the most emotional moment he’s ever had as UFC boss.

“It was a massive disaster,” said Fertitta. “I think we probably got paid on about 20,000, 25,000 buys. I think our break-even was like 120,000. We lost $2 million to $3 million.”

“Dana couldn’t get out of bed for a week. I’ve never seen him so depressed.”

***

'DO YOU WANNA BE A (EXPLETIVE) FIGHTER?'

It was a speech from Dana White that made Craig Piligian, the producer of The Ultimate Fighter, tear up during a documentary on UFC’s 20-year history.

The speech was inspired. It was from the heart. It was passionate. And it was nearly ruined by class clown Forrest Griffin.

Word had gotten to White that the contestants on The Ultimate Fighter, the last-ditch reality-TV effort to save UFC, were balking over being told they’d have to fight in the coming days. The contestants didn’t think they’d have to fight until the end of the season so many were way above their weight limit. They also weren’t getting paid specifically to fight.

These were logical complaints – but that didn’t stop White from fuming as he raced to the UFC training centre that morning.

“Let me explain something to everybody,” he started. “This is a very, and when I say very, I can’t explain to you what a unique opportunity this is … Do you wanna be a f---ing fighter? Do you wanna be a fighter? That’s the question.

“It’s not about cutting weight. It’s not about living in a (expletive) house. It’s about, do you wanna be a fighter? It’s not all signing autographs and banging broads when you get out of here. It’s not. It’s no (expletive) fun, man. It’s not. It’s a job just like any other job. Being a fighter isn’t all (expletive) girls and signing autographs. It’s (expletive) hard work but you have the opportunity to (expletive) make money, be famous, and do something for the sport here. That’s what this is all about. So the question is not, ‘Did you think you had to make weight? Did you think you had to do this?’ Do you wanna be a f---ing fighter? That is my question.”

It was a dramatic twist, a two-minute speech that gave fans insight into the drive possessed by White. It almost gave fans a further glimpse into the bombastic personality of Griffin.

“Here’s the thing,” said Griffin, one of the most beloved – and quirky – fighters in company history.

“And I should have said it but I didn’t know Dana well enough at the time. He said it’s not all getting drunk and blowjobs, or it’s not broads and getting drunk. Something to that effect. Actually, if you watch it, you’ll see I raise my hand but I didn’t want to interrupt him. I raised my hand and he didn’t call on me,” Griffin said as he started to laugh.

“I was going to say, ‘But there’s some of that, right? There’s some getting drunk and broads? That’s, like, a part of it, right?’ ”

***

THE RIVALRY THAT MADE 'THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER'

Forrest Griffin defeating Stephan Bonnar in an iconic three-round slugfest is arguably the most famous fight in UFC history. It’s the moment that saved the company, according to UFC lore. But the live finale wasn’t even the highest-rated episode of that first season of The Ultimate Fighter.

That honour is reserved for the climax of the rivalry that made TUF must-see TV: Chris Leben versus Josh Koscheck. If it wasn’t for those two hooking so many casual viewers, who knows how many people would have even been around to watch the finale?

“Things that generate interest, fights that generate interest, are typically ones that come with some sort of rivalry,” said Fertitta.

Leben was the cocky, often-drunk, rebel-rouser who in the first few episodes of TUF peed on the pillow of a castmate, challenged fellow fighters and told anyone who’d listen that he was the best in the house.

Koscheck and Bobby Southworth quickly became Leben’s antagonists.

“It’s the same as regular life. You go into a gym you’re not used to, some of the guys you meet you click with instantly,” said Leben. “Other guys, not so much. Then there’s the occasional guy: oil and water.”

The hatred peaked when, in a string of events, Koscheck and Southworth sprayed a passed-out Leben with water from a hose, Southworth called Leben a “fatherless bastard” (hitting very close to home) and Leben tore the house apart. It resulted in a pro-wrestling like double-turn, in which Koscheck became the hated heel and Leben the sympathetic babyface.

Fertitta and White had one solution: Leben and Koscheck had to fight, loser-leaves-the-house. That episode, midway through the season, reached an almost-unfathomable 2.2 million viewers.

“That TV show was pretty crazy, that’s for sure. There’s probably a lot of stuff that they could go back and edit, put in there, and make a whole new TV show,” said Koscheck. “When you’re young, I guess you’re a little bit more crazy. There was a lot of craziness in that house. It made for good TV.”

Approximately $34 million in the hole when Zuffa agreed to pay $10 million in production costs for the chance to air it on Spike TV, UFC would be worth an estimated $1 billion within three years of TUF first airing. No wonder White holds a soft spot for each cast member from that season.

“When that thing heated up, when that whole thing blew up with those three, that’s when the season peaked,” said White. “We had the perfect cast at the perfect time.”

***

A HIGHLIGHT FOR THE AGES

Lorenzo Fertitta has been cageside for dozens of UFC events and witnessed hundreds of fights.

At each of those cards, before going live on its broadcasts, UFC plays an in-house video montage set to The Who’s Teenage Wasteland. And there’s one moment, from one title match, he’s seen replayed virtually every fight night – and he never tires of it.

“The one that just blows me away, probably because it was one of the coolest moments that I’ve experienced in the UFC, is when Matt Hughes picked up Frank Trigg and walked him across the octagon, which was unbelievable,” said Fertitta of the UFC 52 title bout between the two bitter rivals.

“The crowd was just electric.”

***

LUDWIG SETS RECORD WITH A BANG

Suffering from an injury few were aware of, Duane 'Bang' Ludwig knew he couldn’t last long that night against Jonathan Goulet.

“First week of training, I separate my shoulder. So I got one arm to fight. The way that fight went is the only way it could have went. Nobody knows that, really. My shoulder was jacked. That’s why I was so focused,” said Ludwig, who took the January 2006 match versus Jonathan Goulet on two weeks’ notice.

The time it takes to read this sentence is roughly the amount of time it took Ludwig to knock out Goulet. “After I won, I raise my arms. I’m like, ‘Ow. I forgot about something.’ ”

The record has been a source of debate and discussion for years. UFC lists the bout as six seconds but due to an error, the Nevada Athletic Commission recognizes the match as 11 seconds. Chan Sung Jung beat Mark Hominick in seven seconds. Ryan Jimmo also needed just seven seconds to beat Anthony Perosh. But Ludwig remains the record-holder in UFC’s books.

“I don’t really care about being the cool guy or whatever,” he said with a smile, “but it’s a story for the kids.”

***

COVERGIRLS AND BOYS

The night of the first-ever UFC, a cub reporter for Sports Illustrated was at the event but the magazine’s editors were so disgusted by the details, the story never went to print.

Perhaps nothing, then, was more indicative of how far the sport had come than when in 2007, UFC – and Roger Huerta, specifically – graced the cover of the iconic magazine.

“That was huge. I mean, it really helped legitimize the sport for us, when we were seriously banging on doors, doing real pitching, having to call and talk to editors,” said former PR publicist Rachel Henry.

At the same time Huerta was on the cover of SI, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta were on the cover of Forbes and Octagon Girl Rachelle Leah was on the cover of Playboy.

“At that press conference, I remember we were passing out Playboys, discreetly,” Henry said with a laugh. “I got one signed for my brother.”

***

ORTIZ, WHITE PART WAYS

After years of battling each other verbally (and almost fighting in a sanctioned boxing match), it was appropriate perhaps that the feud between Dana White and Tito Ortiz would end – temporarily – at a press conference.

Tito was a coward for avoiding Chuck Liddell, White claimed for years. White wasn’t paying fighters what they deserved, retorted Ortiz. On it went, until finally Ortiz’s contract was up after UFC 84. All he had to do was pack his bags and leave the building quietly with his adult film star girlfriend.

“I see Jenna Jameson arguing with somebody and I walk over to see what was going on and she was saying they wouldn’t let Tito into the press conference,” said Yahoo! Sports reporter Kevin Iole. “I was outraged because I felt like, ‘Hey, as media, this is a guy’s final fight. He was a significant figure. We deserve the chance to talk to him and talk about him.’ ”

UFC PR director Jen Wenk said she first assumed Ortiz, because he lost to Lyoto Machida that night, would not want to attend, so she planned for a certain number of fighters on the dais. Then she was told Ortiz was already out there. Despite Wenk’s quiet plea, he didn’t want to leave.

“I’m going to say something to you that I’ve never said to anybody, definitely never told the media,” said Wenk. “I probably made a mistake. What I probably should have done was, excuse myself from the conversation with Tito and gone back and talked, tried to find Dana or Lorenzo, and discuss the situation with them. But I knew how Dana felt about Tito and how Tito felt about Dana. I felt that if I spoke with him candidly that Tito would figure out. At this point, it kind of lingered on. I started to get attention.”

Wenk said she eventually convinced Ortiz to leave the press room. Until, that is, Jameson stepped back into the conversation. “Jenna said to him, ‘You stay there, Tito.’ As soon as I heard that, I knew it was kind of a lost cause,” said Wenk.

“They were trying to push him around and make him feel like he didn’t have the right to speak,” said Jameson. “And to me, them telling him they were going to escort him out, have the cops escort him out, it pissed me off. So I stood my ground and he stood his ground.”

Wenk said Ortiz felt like this was his home and he had a right to be there. “He’s probably right … I’ve seen Tito many times since this and I should probably tell him sorry, that I should have given it more thought.”

Ortiz stayed. He and White tolerated each other for a few more minutes. And he wasn’t seen in UFC for nearly three years, returning after reconciling with White. (The two are on the outs again as this is being written. They perhaps could be friendly again as you are reading this.) “They were both dominant, type-A personalities that refused to basically back down and concede at any point,” said Iole. “The UFC wouldn’t be the UFC were it not for Dana White. But it also wouldn’t be the UFC without Tito Ortiz.”

***

'DID HE REALLY JUST SAY THAT?'

From near-bankruptcy in 2004 to 1.6 million buys, UFC 100 was the most successful pay-per-view not headlined by Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis. Along the way, UFC had gone from being sponsored by Mickey’s Malt Liquor to A-list companies like Harley Davidson and Bud Light.

Not, let it be said, by Coors Light, as was so colourfully noted by Brock Lesnar following his demolition of Frank Mir on UFC’s historic night in July 2009.

“Oh, it registered,” said Dana White of the moment Lesnar was cutting his now-famous promo.

“I’m going to drink a Coors Light – that’s a Coors Light – because Bud Light won’t pay me nothing,” Lesnar said in the centre of the cage, where he and interviewer Joe Rogan stood on a Bud Light logo.

White has laid plenty of verbal smackdowns in his years as boss but few match what Lesnar described as the “whip-the-dog session” he received. It didn’t matter that Lesnar was the biggest star in the game.

“I flipped out,” said White.

Said Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer: “I did find out from the inspector later who was in the dressing room, two inspectors for the main events … He made Brock go in the bathroom with him. He was not kind to Brock.”

Wenk made the trek with White and Lesnar from the locker room to the press conference. Though that stroll only takes a couple minutes, it felt infinitely longer, she said.

“Let’s just say it was an interesting walk. It was the most interesting walk I’ve ever taken with Dana to a post-fight press conference. I just walked. I did not say a word.”

Lesnar had a cold brew in his hand as he entered the press conference.

“Bud Light!” he proclaimed, showing off the bottle. “I’m not biased. I drink any beer.”

***

UFC GETS GO-AHEAD IN ONTARIO

As Tom Wright theorizes it, UFC might have had to wait even longer than it did to make its Ontario debut had it not been for the timing of a provincial election.

Despite being the best per-capita market on the planet – and UFC’s strong desire to hold a card in Toronto – the province in the spring of 2010 was not budging from its stance that the sport violated a section of the Criminal Code that declared boxing the only legal combat sport.

“You need to have several champions to make this happen,” said Wright, who joined UFC as director of Canadian operations in May 2010. “We clearly did not have a champion in government.”

That changed when young Hamilton MP Sophia Aggelontis was promoted, and the MMA file landed on her desk. She wasn’t necessarily a fan, said Wright, but “she got it … She became the internal champion.”

Around the same time, Wright met with Conservative Opposition Leader Tim Hudak, who was on the record saying the ban of MMA in Ontario was ridiculous. His party wanted to attract young voters for the election the following fall and he knew MMA resonated with that demographic.

“I’ve not been told this but one of my suppositions is that (the governing Liberal Party) figured that out, too, and the Liberals thought, ‘We should do something quickly.’ They basically took it away from being an election issue. It took that card out of the hand of the Conservatives.”

On Aug. 14, 2010, the Ontario government announced the sanctioning of MMA in the province. On April 30, 2011, nearly 56,000 fans paid a live gate of $12.1 million at UFC 129 in Toronto.

“To me what’s really quite remarkable is that we open up the office in May, sanctioned in August, regulations were put in place by Jan. 1, we announced our first event in Ontario and held it in April, and filled the Rogers Centre – all in less than a year. It’s pretty crazy.”

***

ALL EYES WERE WATCHING

The red carpet outside the Honda Center in Anaheim was being unrolled right about the time Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos were being taped back together.

It was part of a night UFC had waited years for. Elite XC and Strikeforce beat the company to network television, on CBS, because UFC refused to cede production of its broadcast. Same thing happened to kill a deal with HBO. UFC was close to signing with NBC and taking over the G4 Network. But when FOX offered a seven-year deal, UFC signed up.

The pressure for a big show was on UFC – and, more than anyone, the fighters. They felt it. Which is a big reason why neither of them pulled out, even though they had each suffered injuries that under any other circumstances would have sidelined them.

“Yeah I probably would have. For sure,” said Velasquez, who, unknown at the time to all but a few in his inner circle, fought that night with a torn ACL and reinjured rotator cuff.

“I felt that it was big … If I get in a position like that again, I’m not doing it. But, it felt like it was huge.”

Junior dos Santos fought that night with a torn meniscus and took an injection of cortisone just to compete.

“My injury was pretty severe,” said dos Santos, who had waited a year for his title shot, due to Velasquez being sidelined with his shoulder injury.

“Too much things on (the) line – the title, the deal on FOX, network TV. If it were a normal fight, without the title and not TV, I probably pull out of the fight because it was a serious injury.”

There was no real back-up plan for the company if either were sidelined. Said Fertitta, perhaps only half-joking: “Probably Plan B would have been to pour a drink.”

***

THE SHOW DOESN'T GO ON

Dana White texts. He rarely has time to talk on the phone. So when the UFC president calls, you answer, says Chael Sonnen.

“I grab the call and he just says, ‘Hey, what are you doing next Saturday?’ I can’t remember what I responded. I think I said, ‘I’m coming out to watch Dan Henderson fight.’ He said, ‘Do you want to fight?’ At that time, I had a signed contract to fight Forrest Griffin. And I said, ‘Forrest?’ And he said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Who?’ And he said, ‘Jon Jones.’ ”

White had learned with barely a week’s notice that Henderson injured his knee and had to pull out of the UFC 151 title fight versus Jones on Sept. 1, 2011. He needed a new main event, and fast.

Sonnen was on board. White and Fertitta were on board. Jones, on the other hand … “I got a call that night from an extremely reliable source that’s in camp with Jon Jones, and it’s a friend of mine. ‘Look, Jon’s not going to take the fight.’ I didn’t believe it for a second,” said Sonnen. “But my source was unbelievable. I trust this guy with my life, as they say, and he’s telling me, ‘Look, Jon’s not going to take the fight.’ I just didn’t think it was true.”

White and Fertitta went back to Jones the next day, urging him to face Sonnen. But Jones, after consulting with coach Greg Jackson, declined, even though he knew his bosses don’t hear that answer very often. That afternoon, UFC hastily arranged a conference call.

About one minute before the call began, Kizer received a schedule of UFC 151 events for the week.

“So the UFC office, and to my understanding later, Joe Silva, had no idea it was cancelled,” he said. “Even then, I was expecting the press conference to be about who the replacement was.”

Instead, it was Dana White at his most furious. With Jones declining to face Sonnen, and no other suitable main event on the card, he was cancelling UFC 151. He proclaimed it “one of my all-time lows as president of UFC.” He called Jackson “a (expletive) sport killer.” He said he and Lorenzo “are both disgusted” by Jones’s decision.

“It was really tough, man, to have the whole organization turn their back on me temporarily,” admits Jones. “I knew I would get some serious backlash but it felt good to stand up for what I felt was right, to show the fans I had backbone.”

Jackson and Jones believed Sonnen knew of Henderson’s injury and was preparing to fill in. Sonnen admits now that he had no idea.

“You’ve heard it both ways because I’ve said it both ways. To have a little bit of fun with them, I’ve gone both ways on that,” said Sonnen.

So was it a mistake for Jones to turn down the fight, considering the backlash he took, plus the fact that he would have been taking on an opponent even less prepared than himself? Sonnen thinks so.

“I don’t like to second-guess Jon just because he’s done such a great job with his career. But look, the No. 1 rule in show biz – the No. 1 – is the show must go on,” he said.

“I was completely ready the night I fought Jon Jones (at UFC 159 in April 2012) and it wasn’t ultra competitive, unfortunately. I was not ready the day I got the call (for UFC 151). I wasn’t ready in the least. So, yes, in hindsight, Jon I don’t think would have had a very hard night that night and that’s just the reality. I just simply wasn’t adapted to the weight class yet and I bit off a little more than I could chew.”

***

YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN

Postmedia MMA reporter Dave Deibert has gone 1-on-1 with a who’s who in UFC, from CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White to champions like Georges St-Pierre, Randy Couture and Jon Jones, Octagon Girls such as Logan Stanton and Arianny Celeste to stickmen Mike Goldberg and Bruce Buffer.

Here’s a sampling from the dozens and dozens of off-beat interviews over the years …

DEIBERT: What did you do with the UFC light heavyweight title belt the night you won it?

RASHAD EVANS: I lost the belt for about a week and a half, two weeks. I was like, ‘I’m gonna have to call Dana White and tell him I lost the belt. How irresponsible.’ But I put it in my minivan. My wife and everybody was staying in Chicago with her family. We live in Michigan. We loaded up the minivan and then when we came back, we didn’t unload it right away. It stayed in my minivan for about two weeks and I didn’t know where it was at. I was so happy when I found it.

DEIBERT: You’re in the baddest sport on the planet, you’re fighting for your livelihood and you drive a minivan?

---

DEIBERT: Now I ask this one gently. If you were told that you could have the flowing locks that you had back in your younger days but you had to have a mullet for 12 months and then after that you could do whatever you wanted, would you take that deal?

RANDY COUTURE: (Laughs) Oh yeah. I had a mullet for a lot longer than 12 months. I could do that, no problem.

---

DEIBERT: You were a tremendous soccer player in your younger days, playing Division 1 at Boston College. Now you’re in arguably the manliest sport out there. How much does flopping on the soccer field bother you?

KENNY FLORIAN: (Laughs) You know, it’s funny. I used to be one of those fellow floppers. You had to do whatever you could to get the foul sometimes. Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. That is kind of wimpy there.’ I’ve come a long way since those days.

---

DEIBERT: What guilty pleasure TV show do you never miss that you might not normally tell people you watch?

BRENDAN SCHAUB: I definitely get caught up in Jersey Shore. All the reality stuff. Teen Mom, too.

DEIBERT: So in terms of pure entertainment value, where did the recent fight between J-Woww and Sammi on Jersey Shore rank compared to the best UFC fights this year?

DEIBERT: Oh, man. That’s tough (laughs). Sammi threw a heck of a right hand. That was entertaining. I was on the edge of my seat. There was no knockout, though, so it didn’t really compare.

---

DEIBERT: What does your dad think when you’re out there in that little spandex outfit in front of 20,000 people?

CHANDELLA POWELL: He’s just proud of me. It’s more my mom (laughs). ‘You’re in that skimpy outfit.’ But then she’s like, ‘I love the fights. I love watching it.’ As long as somebody draws some blood, then she’s good. It kind of keeps her distracted from my outfit.

---

DEIBERT: It seems like every time you fight, someone makes a crack about you being a young guy. (Mike) Pyle has said about you: “Let’s be honest, I was winning fights when (MacDonald was) rushing home from junior high to play with (his) Pokemon.” What’s the funniest line you’ve heard from an opponent?

RORY MACDONALD: (Laughs) I can’t remember who it was. It was back when I fought in King of the Cage. Someone said I look like I was supposed to be delivering his paper.

---

DEIBERT: You grew up a pro wrestling fan. If you could have dinner with your four favourites of all-time, who’s at the table with you?

DEIBERT: That would be a big tab at the end of the night, all the heavyweights.

JACKSON: Yeah. I didn’t say I would be paying for it.

---

DEIBERT: Have you ever been in the cage and your mind just wanders off ?

GEORGES ST-PIERRE: One time I was fighting against BJ Penn. I had his back against the fence. I’m not kidding you, for a few seconds I look and I was staring at a beautiful woman in the audience. It was ... uh ... (snaps fingers) Cindy Crawford. I stared at her. I’m thinking, ‘My God, she’s so beautiful. And she’s looking at me.’ And just next to her, I see her husband looking at me, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t look at her. Her husband’s looking at me.’ Now I’m thinking, ‘Of course they’re looking at me. I’m doing the show right now and I’m in the middle of the fight.’ So I’m like, ‘Go back to your focus.’ (laughs)

---

DEIBERT: How many calls did you get on your old cell-phone before you realized the number used to belong to a prostitute?

RONDA ROUSEY: Actually, it was the first call I got. They were voice mails, like, ‘Hello, Laura. I got your number off massagenow.com.’ It was actually listed on massagenow.com, under the name Laura, with a picture. I had plenty of people inquiring. The thing that sucked was it was a pay-as-you-go phone, so if I wanted to stop and mess with the pervert that was calling me, it was actually costing me money. I was already broke, so I’d just get pissed off every time I picked up the phone and some pervo was, like, “Hey Laura...” I was like, ‘(Expletive), I just paid $4. You just cost me money.’ I was paying to get harassed by perverts for a while.

DEIBERT: Name the celebrity you’ve met that left you most in awe.

DANA WHITE: I’m gonna have to say Dr. Phil. I didn’t even know who he was. (“I had to talk him into it,” said UFC PR director Jennifer Wenk.) We go in, her and I go into this green room, and they come in like, ‘Here you go. Here’s your Dr. Phil T-shirt and your Dr. Phil mug.’ I look at Jen like this (raising eyebrows): ‘Oh thank you. That’s nice.’ I’m polite and whatever. Then I throw the (expletive) thing. Like I want the Dr. Phil mug and T-shirt. Then I go out and we do the show. We meet Dr. Phil. Then we go backstage and we start talking to him and (expletive) – the coolest (expletive) guy you could ever meet. Real guy, down to earth, super cool. The way that they do his show, they film the show and then they get you the hell out of there. They bring in a whole other group and start filming another show. So they’re getting us out the door and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. I want my Dr. Phil mug. Where’s my Dr. Phil mug?’ Before we left, I wanted that Dr. Phil mug (laughs) ...

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